automatic sampling system Applications

Effective water quality monitoring is the key to environmental protection of watercourses and for reliable process control and wastewater treatment. Discharge consents under EPR regulations dictate that water quality monitoring is undertaken to ensure that consented parameters are below the consented concentrations. Traditionally this has been done using water quality sampling methods but increasingly automatic water quality measurement sensors linked to real-time telemetry is seen as the most reliable and timely means of ensuring that treatment processes are operating efficiently and that EPR compliance is maintained.

The Tekran 2537 has been used in numerous published studies to measure the deposition or evasion of mercury from natural or contaminated surfaces (i.e. flux measurements). It is anticipated that many mercury flux measurements will be needed in the future to assess the impact of climate change on mercury cycling in the environment. There are two basic ways to do mercury flux measurements. First, the dynamic flux chamber method utilizes a custom enclosure, with controlled air flow, to measure the inlet and outlet concentration over a selected surface to determine the flux over time. Alternatively, the micrometeorological gradient method uses measured concentrations at two levels above a surface. The perfect tool for both flux measurement methods is the Tekran 1110 Two Port Sampler, so the Tekran 2537 can automatically switch between two distinct sampling points. Ask us how we can help you setup a mercury flux system.

SedEvent is an event-driven, automatic grab sampling system that provides a simple and practical method of accurately determining suspended sediment and nutrient loads.
While suspended sediment concentration (SSC) cannot be directly measured accurately or reliably, turbidity has been shown to be an excellent surrogate for SSC. Turbidity is caused by suspended particulate matter such as clay, silt, algae, organic and inorganic chemicals and acids like fertilizers, and microscopic organisms like harmful bacteria. These contents give water its cloudy or turbid appearance, and turbidity in natural waters is recognized as an important indicator of natural health.
Measuring suspended sediment concentrations used to be labor-intensive, costly, inaccurate and impractical. SedEvent not only makes it possible and practical, it makes it simple.

Digital Pathology is an image-based information environment enabled by virtual microscopy. This involves imaging glass slides and saving and distributing their digital images for analysis, archiving and storage.
The virtual microscopy slides are:
•Scanned — using a microscope based scanning device that takes images of the whole slide via large scanning or stitching of smaller scans. This involves a motorized stage to scan the whole slide. Light source stability is important for scanning in order to prevent illumination variation across the whole scan. The X-Cite® exacte is commonly used in slide scanning systems.
•Viewed — on a computer via viewing software
•Managed — some of the slides have a barcode that is also scanned to enable archiving with patient information
•Analysed — using image analysis tools and software, structures maybe automatically identified and quantified
•Shared — digital pathology files may be shared over a network to gather additional expert opinion
Digital pathology technology in no way replaces the expert eye and diagnosing power of a pathologist and a doctor. The only thing it saves is time to image the samples and also provides an efficient and organized way to archive the virtual microscopy slides for future consultations, record-keeping and disease comparison.

The EPR regulations have replaced the IPPC regulations and are effective from May 2009 for qualifying companies within the industrial sector and October 2009 within the water sector. They will progressively require industry to minimise waste, reduce product loss and implement improved process control. The legislation will require the operator to self monitor processes and discharges, to demonstrate effective control with particular emphasis on EPR compliance and prevention. The regulating Agency will operate a point scoring system to assess operators under the OMA-3 program and this will be used to identify how well a company is managing their processes and possibly identify areas for improvement. The Environmental Permitting Regulations require industry to install instrumentation (MCERTS approved where available) to report water quality. EPR compliance monitoring may include automatic water sampling, flow measurement, pH, turbidity and TOC water analysis. Industry will need to identify point of source emissions, take steps to correct inefficient control and alarm unacceptable process deviations. Although the legislation focuses on environmental improvement, good housing keeping also makes a lot of sense. Optimisation of process control minimises waste, reduces treatment costs and ultimately saves money.

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